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Friday, March 10, 2017

PROJECT SOANE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE P.S.

About a month ago something very strange happened. Nobody seems to know how, but most of the data on Project Soane was wiped clean. I didn't realise this until last week when two project members alerted me. Over the past few days, with help and support from Autodesk, I have restored the site, taking the opportunity to reorganise it with the benefit of hindsight and a much deeper understanding of the building, the architect, the historical period.

There is a folder called "Current Sheets" which will be updated from time to time. This contains images exported directly from the sheets in the main model file, plus a few other images that help to give newcomers a snapshot of the current state of the model and some insight into what has been achieved.

The Reference Material has been completely reorganised in a folder of that name. I think I have re-posted all the original hi-res material sourced by the project founders from the Soane Museum in London. Let me know if you notice any omissions and we will try to sort it out. There is also a lot of additional material, mostly slightly lower resolution, much of it downloaded from the Soane Museum online archive, which is THE MOST AMAZING RESOURCE.

Please be aware that copyright for most of the images still resides with their original owners. They are provided here under the original agreement with the Soane Museum for private study and research purposes. Please respect this at all times.

I have created a new folder called "Stories" where people can share work they have done which extends the core modelling project in some way or other. I have started this off with a subfolder called "Timeline Images" which are exported from various study files that I have created over the past 2 years or so in order to better understand the sequential history of this very complex project.
I have also made my first foray into the Wiki Pages section, which was originally set up by the project founders, adding a note to the welcome page, for example. As you may know, the model is now hosted on C4R, so you no longer have to download and re-upload in order to contribute.

Everything is 2017 version by the way, and please ensure that you have the latest updates installed before opening anything. If you want to contribute, please leave a message on the site, and we will come to an agreement about allocation of responsibilities. I made an excel file to record activity which will be restored shortly, hopefully in a way that enables direct editing of the worksheet.

But my major contribution to the Wiki Pages is a new page based on some of the Timeline images. This gives an overview of the architectural history of the Bank from its foundation to Soane's retirement. Future pages will go into a bit more detail and extend the period into the early twentieth century when most of Soane's work was demolished to make way for a design by Sir Herbert Baker.

So every cloud has a silver lining, and this little cloud catastrophe has given me renewed inspiration and energy to take Project Soane to the next level. Why don't you get involved. Many people have contributed to the project, not just by modelling but in all kinds of ways, the original founders deserve a very special mention for example. There were many submissions for the rendering stage of the project and I would like to integrate this work more fully with the A360 site where collaboration is ongoing.

So there are many ways to participate. There is at least one student currently developing a project based on the site, and inspired by the spirit of Project Soane. I would really like to incorporate initiatives of this kind into the Stories section. So how would you like to contribute? Lots of possibilities. Think outside the box. Give me a shout.